


Once Upon a Time in Agrabah - Prologue

by Mitchi_476



Series: Once Upon a Time Chronicals [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), SHAKESPEARE William - Works, كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Post-Season/Series 03A AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 07:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9537884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitchi_476/pseuds/Mitchi_476
Summary: Late one night, while in college, Henry Mills chances upon a mysterious storybook. It leads him to a man simply known as The Apprentice and to a new purpose as The Author.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So way back at the end of Season 4B, my friend Sparky_Yong_Upstart and I speculated on what would happen and like many people, we were rather let down. But while brain storming far better plot ideas than what the showrunners went with, we came up with (what was initially) a continuation fic centred around Henry ending up in Agrabah and expanded. After some tweeking (and Sparky dropping the show) it became an AU and now here we are. Hope you all enjoy

It had been eight long years since Rumpelstiltskin had died. Saved the entire town. Peter Pan, who turned out to be Henry’s great-grandfather (go figure), had planned to use the Dark Curse on Storybrooke. He wanted to turn it into a new Neverland. Rumple had used his dagger, and stabbed both Pan and himself, sacrificing the Dark One powers to save everyone. And with just enough time to stop the curse.

And everything became quiet. Henry’s mother, Regina, had a hard time with her magic. It was as if with the Dark One gone, the magic of the town had dampened. And slowly went away. 

Henry remembered when the curse had been broken. He remembered how anxious everyone was to get back to the Enchanted Forest. He remembered how everyone hoped that the magic beans would be the solution. But no. After Pan, after all that had happened, everyone had to settle for living their lives in Storybrooke. They lived, children grew up. The curse that kept them locked in the town was long gone and people left for greener pastures: to go to school, to live somewhere else, to see the world.

Emma and Neal slowly rekindled their relationship, moved in together and settled down. Henry would split his time between them and Regina. His grandparents had another child, a boy, and named him Leo, for Snow’s father. He was now seven. Belle decided to go on the adventure she always wanted. But she didn’t go alone. Hook, while never forgetting what Rumplestiltskin had done to him, had forgiven him. He apologized to Belle for everything he had done to her, and they formed a strong friendship.

Henry’s life from that point on was normal. He went through middle school and high school. He dated a bit, played on the school’s baseball team, went to grad and prom. Henry was surprised that he got into NYU. He’d wished to go there, mostly for a change of pace, but thought that the more like University of Maine would take him. 

That was two years ago now. Henry remembered the day he got to New York, with his moms and dad. Grandma and Grandpa had sent him off with a massive care package. Despite Regina’s insistence of staying in his father’s old apartment, Henry elected to stay in the dorms. He wanted to be close to the student life, anyway.

On his own for the first time, Henry found himself settling in fairly easily. He immersed himself in the world of literature, storytelling, plays, poems, prose, archetypes. He made friends, and found himself gravitating towards a group of like minded students. They had different backgrounds, most in English, some in film, some philosophy, others history, an anthropology student and a psych major. They’d spend long evenings in the libraries, cafes and dorm rooms studying, discussing, debating and bouncing their various strange ideas about. 

Henry’s first semester was so… normal. Quiet, once again like Storybrooke after Pan’s defeat.

That is until a curious incident one evening at the Bobst Library. Henry was sitting in a carrel one February evening in his freshman year, working on a paper on William Blake. He had just gone for a few minutes to use the washroom when, on the shelf with his textbooks was a book that hadn’t been there before. From the spine, it was brown leather, with faded gold lettering saying, “Once Upon a Time.”

Henry had brought his book with him. He kept it on a shelf in his dorm room. He didn’t bring it down often, and when he did, it was mostly in his moments of homesickness and nostalgia. As far as Henry knew, his book was still in his room. He hadn’t put it in his bag, he hadn’t even looked at it in a couple of weeks. What was it doing on the carrel shelf?

Henry reached up and took down the book. It was the same height, length, width as his. It had the same gold title. He opened up the book, the pages were a thick, creamy white. What he found inside, however, were not the fairytales he was use to. His book, his family and people, mainly came from the Brothers Grimm and Perrault versions. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood. These were fairytales he had never seen. Stories and illustrations of marvellous deer, master craftsmen, mysterious spirits, and mountains of malachite. 

He shut the book with a snap and tried to go back to Blake’s poetry and philosophy. Trying to draw meaning from his own strange, esoteric drawings. But that storybook kept pulling him away from 19th century Romantics. Henry’s curiosity gnawed at him. He wanted to know where this book came from, who had written it. And why was it placed at his carrel?

It was about ten o’clock when Henry packed up to go back to his dorm. He paused for a moment, deciding what to do with this mysterious book. Reason won out, and he stopped by the front desk, the clerk saying that they would put it in the lost and found box. 

The next day, Henry showed up after class to continue working on the paper and found the book on the carrel shelf once again. This time, Henry sought out some help as to where this book came from and to whom it belonged to. He went over to the reference desk and asked the clerk there about the book. He was a grizzled, middle aged man, with a full beard and the shabby look of a scholar. 

The clerk took the book and his eyes lit up with recognition. Henry explained that how he had come across the book. 

“I know what this is,” the clerk said.

“You do?”

“Yes. But we should not talk about this here. There’s an office we can talk more freely in.”

That day, Henry learned more about the world his family came from. About it’s magic. The clerk introduced himself as The Apprentice. Merlin’s apprentice. More importantly, Henry learned about the Author. And Henry gained a mission.


End file.
